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Captain Pete: A novel based on three generations of an island family
In the summer of 1966 Bessie Holland Heck took our family’s ferry out to Ship Island. During the 70-minute cruise she met my father, Captain Peter Matthew Skrmetta. She like many passengers spoke to Captain Pete through the open windows of the pilot house during the trip to and from the island. She was interested in the history of the Skrmetta family boat business and Pete was happy to share a few stories about life on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. As a result of this brief conversation, she became enthusiastic about writing a story in which his boat and Ship Island figured prominently. He agreed and from this chance meeting blossomed the book Captain Pete.
Captain Peter Skrmetta and son Louis Skrmetta Photo by Bo Lamey
In 1926, my grandfather, Peter Martin Skrmetta, founded what became our island excursion business, and it has been in continuous operation every year since. In fact, the Skrmetta family has provided passage to over a million Ship Island visitors in the ensuing years. Captain Pete’s son Peter Matthew (my father) worked as a young deckhand for the company until becoming principal skipper in 1953 after returning from military service in the Korean War. In turn, I worked as a deckhand and eventually became a third generation Skrmetta boat captain in 1976.
Of course, the tale within is fiction. Birthed from a creative writer’s imagination, the story based on interviews with my Dad and myself. The locations are real, and to tell the truth, some of the stories my not be to far from fact.
At the end of the book is a short history of our family business and pictures of the real Captain Pete, my Grandfather, my Father Captain Peter II with his four sons, along with a photo of the Pan American Clipper (the boat Bessie rode), and of course, Ship Island.
My hope is for you to enjoy this book, and sign up for our next book, the Skrmetta family business memoir which is scheduled to be released for our 100th anniversary in 2026.
Captain Louis Peter Skrmetta